


Fraction

by themysteryvanishing



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode: s03e06 The Real World, F/M, Scene Study, i could write about this episode forever and still find new things to say about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28530510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themysteryvanishing/pseuds/themysteryvanishing
Summary: Peeling back the layers on the final convo between Elizabeth and John at the end of The Real World.
Kudos: 5





	Fraction

He found her with her back to him, shoulders tensed as she leaned against the railing of the short gangway between her office and the control room. Moonlight pouring in from the massive gateroom windows below rendered her a silhouette; quiet, unmoving, inaccessible to him from where he stood. He almost didn’t want to bother her, knew there was a reason she was awake so late, keeping the gate and nightshift as distant, familiar company.

But for the same reason he had broken quarantine earlier that day, to wrap his hands around her small, cold arm even if it meant risking infection with nanites, he found himself unable to leave her alone with her thoughts tonight. Not because he thought she _couldn’t_ be alone, but because Elizabeth would do the same for him, for anyone on his team, hell, on this _base_ , and by god, she shouldn’t _have_ to be alone.

John softly cleared his throat on gentle approach, allowing her the space and time to readjust to his presence, which he knew, deep down, she was struggling to reconcile with the living nightmare from which she’d just emerged.

She was fiddling with something he immediately recognized, if only on sight and not for its significance. John had seen it in its place of honor on her desk since day one (alongside the Athosian earthenware pot he’d surprised her with for her birthday a couple years ago, he had been pleased to note): a brushed silver pocket watch on a chain. He’d never asked about it, knew it wasn’t his place to do so, but he’d long suspected its importance to her. He watched, almost mesmerized, as she anxiously thumbed over its smooth surface, turning it over and over in her hands.

Elizabeth wasn’t one for fiddling.

_She shouldn’t have to suffer alone_.

“Still up, huh?” he asked, by way of greeting.

There was no missing her small jump of surprise. His heart broke a little at that.

“Oh, hey,” Elizabeth replied, attempting to plaster over her involuntarily sharp startle response with a half-hearted smile as she turned to face him. “Yeah, I wasn’t all that keen to go back to sleep just yet.”

John nodded. “Understandable.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve been released from quarantine,” she continued, eyebrow slightly raised as she gave him a quick onceover.

John shrugged just a touch nonchalantly, moving to join her at the railing. “Yeah. Well, I guess the nanites were too focused on you to spread to me.”

He offered her a small smile, something she couldn’t help but immediately rebuff with a quick shake of her head as he watched her descend down a dark line of thought.

“I now realize just how insidious they really are,” she said, struggling to meet his gaze. “I mean, if such a small number of them could do that to me…”

He tried to head her off at the pass. “Well, let’s just take it as a win right now.”

Elizabeth looked down at the watch in her hands, could feel John’s gaze on her. She wanted to say everything…and nothing. The sensation throttled her, and she was terrified of him seeing it. Didn’t matter that they’d been doing this dance for three years already.

“Alright.” She settled with a quick reorganization of her features—back to calm, cool, collected Elizabeth Weir—as she looked back up at him. “Still, I can’t believe I was only out for five hours.”

She permitted the tiniest hint of a smile to quirk the corner of her mouth.

John relaxed a bit at that. “Felt longer, huh?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth replied as she looked back over the gateroom. She paused a moment, as if desperate to slow the cogs that turned against her will but was desperately failing, as if she had only a fraction of the fortitude that had brought her this far in spite of (or perhaps, because of?) her tendency to over-scrutinize. “A…a lifetime.”

John felt like he was watching the saddest game of tug of war. Nothing about this was funny, nothing in his arsenal of lighthearted jabs and flirty repartees was right for this. He wanted to try, though.

_She shouldn’t have to suffer alone._

“Well, it’s good to have you back in the real world,” he said, settling with a small grin. “At least, I _think_ it’s the real world. I mean, I could be infected right now, which makes _me_ the one…”

“John?” Elizabeth cut in, her voice wavering, eyes widening.

He couldn’t backpedal any harder if he tried, stammering into silence.

“Don’t.”

It was all the warning he needed. He looked back at the pocket watch in her shaky hands.

“Sorry.”

He smiled once more, in earnest apology, and turned to walk away.

She let him.


End file.
